Albus V Osbrin
Albus V Osbrin was the twenty-ninth monarch of Dorio. He was known for his serious nature, and for the stability of his reign. Early life Albus was born in 478, the youngest of three children. Albus had somewhat of a turbulent childhood, owing to the many festivals thrown by his father, and because of that he grew to be rather somber and severe. This was exacerbated by the death of his older brother, Arthur, when Albus was only eight; Albus tended to blame his father's lax nature for allowing Arthur to fall ill and die, and so relations were strained from that point onward. In his late adolescence, Albus considered entering a monastery and removing himself from succession, but he felt that he had no viable successor and decided to remain in the royal family. Reign Albus came to power at an odd time, amidst mixed tragedy and celebration; the half-millennium festival was continuing even after Albus IV's untimely death. After the festival's end, Albus V held a spare and isolated funeral, a significant tonal departure even from his mother's funeral five years prior. As opposed to his father, who tended towards flightiness and escape, Albus dealt with his grief by burying himself in work. He spent much of his time in Parabun, the seat of the Golden Sextet, working on optimizing the system and maximizing the profit to be earned by its member states. This did provide a substantial increase in revenue, and Albus was also instrumental in orchestrating the "Kussian invasion," the Sextet's rush to set up Kussian markets after the collapse of Srevelle in 517. During this period, Albus also feuded with the Heplian church, which he castigated for the increasing corruption in the priesthood. This culminated in 520, when the outraged Lord Reverend Adolphe Orech banned Albus from setting foot in Rhennish churches. This angered many Dorian Heplians, who enjoyed the stability and national work ethic under Albus V's rule, and there were a number of conversions to Vazranism and Gredenism in the 520s. Another conflict in the earlier years of Albus' reign came after the expansionism of Rashun V, the "Imperial Prince" of Vicra. After Rashun conquered a substantial amount of territory on the Isthmus of Kenkor, Albus sent in troops to benefit the Kenkori and Lhofen soldiers in the war. Rashun was eventually repelled and pushed back into his old borders in 521, and although he tried again to expand, he made minimal progress before his death in 525. 525 also saw the accession of Luther Grouss in Leguna, and as Luther grew increasingly despotic, Albus began to disapprove of his behavior; this led Albus, in 531, to call for a vote to expel Leguna from the Golden Sextet. It passed by a 3-2 vote, and in revenge Luther began to attack the Dorian and Farelian borders; however, this only served to further alienate Luther from the international community, and Albus mostly disregarded Luther's petulant incursions. The later years of Albus' reign were more peaceful, as the Alarean geopolitical situation stabilized, and this period saw the Dorian economy boom. Albus softened his solemnity in his old age, and he actually began throwing small festivals in the later years of his reign; the largest of these was his Crown of the Ages festival, which commemmorated the fiftieth year of his rule. By this point a septuagenarian, Albus stayed mostly in Cantingvale, and in 553 quietly died in his sleep. Personal life Albus married Pamela Dorgossus, a similarly somber noblewoman, in 498; the two got along well, owing to their similar temperaments, and had four children in the ensuing years. Albus sought to raise his children to be as studious and circumspect as himself, and considering the strength of Dorio under his rule, they took to it well. In 520, Albus decided to make his son-in-law Garrett Harquess his heir; his cited rationale was that, as his daughter Anita was his eldest child, it would be most appropriate for the royal bloodline to continue through her. This decision offended Talbot, Albus' eldest son, who argued that he was being unfairly deprived of his heirdom; however, Albus argued that Talbot would nevertheless be inheriting much of the Osbrin family property, and thus was still being fairly served. The Garrett debate caused division among the Osbrin family, which Albus mainly disregarded. Category:Dorians Category:Osbrin Family Category:Monarchs